Back Again
by Mela Ilya
Summary: The moment the curse broke, Regina knew there was no going back. Regina's journey beginning with the second season and her search for true redemption. Not an apologist or a hater story.
1. Chapter 1

**This is a story about Regina post-curse in Storybrooke. It is neither an apologist or a hater story; I just wanted to explore her side of things. I don't like the way they've handled things on the show with her, so this is me doing it my own way. As a note, I also won't gloss over some of the things she's done, because for someone to truly be redeemed, they have to come to terms with what they've done. I hope you like it and please please review!**

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The moment that the curse broke, Regina knew that it was only a matter of time before everyone began to turn on her. After manipulating and ruling over them—among other things—for over forty years in the Enchanted Forest and here in Storybrooke, people were angry. She shouldn't have been afraid. She was Regina. She'd never come across a single foe who she could defeat. No sorcerer except perhaps Rumpelstiltskin and possibly the fairies could stand against her power.

Yet the most powerful curse in the world had been defeated by a simple kiss. The curse she cast. All the time and work she'd put into this curse was undone by a small act of love.

So maybe she was afraid.

This wasn't the Enchanted Forest, and now that people were waking up, they were angry at her for the lost twenty-eight years that they'd spent living the lives of other people. Even with all her magic, she couldn't stop them all from tearing her apart, limb by limb.

"If I was you, Madam Mayor, I'd be on my way," Blue said.

Regina searched her face in horror, then looked at Henry, who now looked like himself. Heart breaking, she found herself practically on her knees before his bed. "Henry, please. No matter what happened, please know that I love you," she pleaded, her eyes brimming with tears.

Henry looked at her reluctantly, and by the way he was staring at her, she could have been ten miles away and not two feet. When Emma stepped in between them, Regina stood up. "Get out," Emma said in a low voice.

Emma. It was all Emma's fault. Ever since that accursed woman set foot in this town, Regina had felt fear gnawing at her being, slowly but surely. And now, she felt paralyzed by that fear. Emma loved Henry; that much was obvious by the fact that her kiss brought him back. And if she loved him that much, there was no telling how far Emma was willing to go to get back at her.

Regina took a few steps backward before running out of the room. All the way through the hospital and through the parking lot, people were staring at her and pointing their fingers, but she paid them no heed. When she finally got into her car, she peeled out of the lot without much attention to her surroundings. She thought she might have heard her car hitting something on the side, but she wasn't sure. She had to get back. Back to her large, empty home.

What was the point in going back if no one was going to be there? She'd spent seventeen years in that house completely alone before she adopted Henry; she didn't think she could stomach even another week being by herself. What was she going to do? The curse wouldn't let her leave the town, so she had nowhere to go but home. When she got back, the first thing she did was lock each and every window and door in the house.

But when she got to Henry's room, she found herself standing in the doorway for longer than she cared to admit. She'd lost him. What did she have to live for now?

All the sacrifices she'd made to get this happy ending were thrown away like scraps before the dogs. Everything. She'd killed her father for this. . . she'd sent countless children to their death for the apple. How many lives had she taken just to get the life she'd always wanted?

She walked numbly toward the window and slowly locked it. All this fear and devastation she was feeling right now made her feel so vulnerable, and she hated it. How had it come to this?

In the Enchanted Forest, mothers would round their children and flee to their homes when she walked by. Men would look away from her in fear. Some would look at her boldly in admiration. No one had ever dismissed her. Even here in Storybrooke before Emma had come along, people stayed out of her way. Sometimes it got old, having everyone under her power; sometimes she was just itching for a fight. But she loved the power. People had feared her, and rightfully so.

Now, _she_ was running from _them_.

How mighty the fall, Rumpelstiltskin had once told her, and he was right.

There was no going back now.


	2. Chapter 2

When she saw a cloud covering all of Storybrooke, Regina knew what it was. She could feel its power strengthening the closer it got. So close she could almost taste. When it flew into her house, it knocked the breath out of her.

She expected to feel something, but she didn't. She felt no different than she had a few moments ago.

Before she could do anything, she started hearing people outside her house. Her hands began shaking as she looked out the window and saw everyone gathering in her yard. It must not have taken some long to fall back into their Enchanted Forest personalities, for she saw over a dozen people with pitchforks.

She looked to see who was leading them, fully expecting it to be Snow or David. Instead, she saw Frankenstein leading the rally, listing every "wrong" she'd ever done. The rest of the fools in the crowd would yell with every new mention like sheep.

What right did that horrid doctor have to hate her? It was his fault she was the way she was. He was the one who broke her heart when he promised to save Daniel, but like everyone else, he'd lied to her. This all was his fault. If anything, the people should be turning on _him_, not her.

Fools. All of them. Every last one of them. They were nothing compared to her.

So why were her hands still shaking?

She clasped them together to try to steady them, but it did little good. She kept watching through the window, hoping that they would all leave. What where they going to do, tear the house down?

When she saw David, Snow, Emma, and Henry coming, her heart sank. This is what they'd been waiting for, to get their revenge. Her mouth twisted. Well they weren't going to get it. This was her happy ending, her story. They weren't about to ruin anything again. Not this time.

She saw David standing in front of everyone, holding his arms up. But instead of revving them up like Frankenstein had been, he was telling everyone to calm down. She moved as close as she dared to the window, hoping that no one would notice her. Snow was standing at the front of the crowd, looking conflicted, and Emma was holding onto Henry, looking at her parents anxiously.

This didn't make sense. Why was David stopping them? Out of everyone in the Enchanted Forest who she had targeted, their family had suffered the worst. She expected them to be leading the gauntlet, but instead, they were defending her. And that, is what bewildered her the most.

Whale started arguing with David, and she knew she had to make an appearance. She had to show them that she was still in charge and that nothing had changed. Her entire life, she was good at keeping up fronts. She used it when she was young so her mother wouldn't know how scared she was of her, then again when she was in love with Daniel and kept it a secret from her mother. When she was forced to marry Leopold, she again used it so they wouldn't know how deeply she detested them. If there was anything she knew how to do, it was to put up a front, so even though she was dreadfully afraid, it was easy for her to look confident as she threw the doors open.

The people saw her and began yelling in anger, and David moved so they couldn't get to her. Snow still didn't move; instead, she glared at her in such a way that no one could miss how much she hated her. She scanned the crowd for Henry, but couldn't see him.

"Murderer!" someone yelled.

"We need justice!"

"Everyone needs to just calm down right now," David bellowed, silencing them all. "You want justice? This isn't it. This is slaughter. Regina will stand trial like any other criminal."

"Trial?" she laughed. "Who is going to put me on trial? You?"

"You need to answer for what you've done!" Widow Lucas yelled. Everyone cheered in agreement.

Whale turned to face the already boisterous crowd and began revving them up even more. She looked at Snow again and felt uncomfortable under her stare. Had she kept her eyes on her this whole time?

What right did she have to be angry at her? This was all her fault. If she had been able to keep a secret, none of this would have ever happened.

"It's time for the Evil Queen to pay!" Frankenstein yelled, receiving cheers of acknowledgement.

"Enough!" Regina yelled, then threw her arms out.

Everyone gasped and ducked in response, but nothing happened. Horrified, Regina looked at her hands in horror. No, something was wrong. There was magic here; she felt it when the cloud flew over only a few minutes before. Why couldn't she use it?

"She doesn't have magic anymore," some fool said.

"She's just as weak as any of us."

"Do you see that? She doesn't have magic to hide behind anymore. I say we take her now and make her pay," the doctor said.

"Shut up, Whale," David said.

"You aren't my prince," he taunted in a low tone.

"Who are you, Whale?"

"That's my business. And it's time for that woman to get what she deserves," he said as he grabbed Regina and threw her against a pillar.

"Hey," Emma said as she grabbed his arm. "We are not murderers here."

Snow finally spoke then. "She's right. Regina needs to stand trial. If we slaughter her now, we'll be sinking down to her level. We're better than that. She needs to be locked up for our safety until we figure out what we're going to do with her."

"She needs to pay!"

"She will," Snow said. "But killing her won't give us any answers. Like I said, she will answer for her crimes, but in the meantime, she needs to be put behind bars."

**ooOoo**

Regina had never felt so powerless as she felt when David and Snow shut her in the cell at the station. Even when she had been imprisoned by them in the Enchanted Forest, she still felt in control. She had been powerful even in captivity. But now, she was just as weak as any mortal person, and it terrified her.

To make matters worse, Snow stayed behind to keep an eye on her after David, Emma, and Henry left. She would have been content with one of the dwarfs or that werewolf, but not Snow. She was tired of that brat ruining her life. Hadn't she already done enough?

She was scared, but she wasn't about to let it show. Instead, she took on the sardonic front that she was so good at. "I suppose you're happy, aren't you? Got everything you ever wanted. I bet you've been thinking up of ways to kill me, haven't you?"

"Shut up, Regina," she snapped.

Regina stood and grabbed the bars. "You may have me prisoner and be able to keep me from leaving, but you can't do anything to shut me up. You're stuck with me, so you might as well get used to it."

Snow looked at her then. "How does it feel now, you behind those bars and me on the outside? Not so smug now, are you?"

"I should have killed you when I had the chance."

Snow laughed. "You've had many chances and attempts on my life, haven't you? And what have they all amounted to?"

"I seem to remember being on the verge of execution before you stood up wailing and wanted to stop it."

"Compassion," Snow sighed. "It tends to be my greatest fault concerning you, Regina. After all, I spent all my childhood growing up thinking that you loved me. I thought of you as my mother. So did I have second thoughts when I saw you about to be executed? Yes. But not this time. This time, you're going to pay."

"Come now, Snow. We've been playing this game long enough for me to know that you don't have it in you to kill. Remember that day in the woods when you thought I was just a poor wounded girl? I was inches away from you and powerful, and you still didn't do it."

"Like I said, Regina, it was compassion. But you'll find these days I'm running rather low on mercy."

"You have no right to cast judgment."

"Oh no, Regina," she said casually. "I'm not going to cast judgment here. The people of the Enchanted Forest—or Storybrooke now—are going to judge you. That's right, every child you sent to the Infinite Forest, everyone whose brother, sister, mother or father you killed, everyone you've ever hurt will be there. And something tells me, Regina, they aren't going to rule in your favor."

"I had every right to do those things. I was the queen—"

"_I_ was the queen, Regina. The rightful queen. Even if you were the queen, that doesn't make _anything_ you ever did okay. What about the Huntsman?"

Regina looked up, defensive. "What about him?" she asked in a low voice.

"Every unspeakable thing you did to him in the Enchanted Forest. Everything you did for twenty eight years here in Storybrooke. He may have thought he loved you, but that's only because you made it to where he believed that. And that heart attack? It wasn't a heart attack, was it? He was twenty-nine, and in good health. Did you do it? Did you crush his heart the way you did so many others?"

Regina glared at her for a moment before going to her bed and laying down, staring at the ceiling. "I'm through talking with you. You're still that naive little girl I rescued that day on the horse who thought that the world was only black and white."

Snow came closer to her cell. "Oh, I assure you, Regina, I'm not that girl anymore. Because now, I'm going to let you die, and I'm not going to bat an eye."

Snow's cellphone rang, and she went back to the desk to answer it. "I'll say one thing, Regina. You picked a great spot to have us all cursed in. These cellphones? Amazing." She picked the phone up. "Hello? Yeah what's up? Who is going to watch Regina? Are you sure? Alright, I'll be there in a few."

Picking up her keys and jacket, she looked at her over her shoulder. "I'll be back in a while. Try not to wander off, now."

After she left, Regina sat up quickly and rammed her fist against the wall. She wished she had something to throw. She stood up and went to the lock. Try as she might, she couldn't unlock it. She strained her hand in its direction until it started shaking and the veins in her neck protruded, but nothing happened. Why hadn't her magic returned?

She knew that magic was in Storybrooke. She'd felt it in the cloud the moment it passed over her. So why couldn't she use it? It was eating her alive.

"Magic is different here, dearie," she heard a familiar voice saying. She looked up to see Rumpelstiltskin standing with his cane in the doorway. She didn't even bother asking how he got in. It was strange hearing him sound like a normal person. She got used to hearing it from Mr. Gold, but this wasn't Gold anymore. Even after he remembered who he was before the curse broke, he was still for the most part Mr. Gold. He looked the same, sounded the same, and even dressed the same, but this man wasn't a well-dressed businessman. This man was Rumpelstiltskin, the Dark One.

"Why don't I have my powers?" she hated how much her voice sounded like a angry child's.

"Like I just said, magic is different here. It may take you a while, hopefully a long while, to get it back."

"I thought we were allies," she said, growing angry.

"We were," he said in a calm voice. "I taught you magic, let you cast the curse, then conspired with you here in this lovely little town. See, you were what this world would call a kindred spirit. No one else really understands the darkness that resides in the both of us. I suppose that's why I helped you so much. We understood one another. That," he said pointedly, "was before I was reunited with a certain friend of mine. A dear friend."

"Who, Captain Hook?" she said sarcastically.

"No, no," he said as he stretched his neck side to side. "Someone I thought was long dead. Someone you told me threw herself from her window to her death."

Regina's face paled as Rumpelstiltskin came closer. "Someone you locked up for twenty eight years in a dank, dark hole in the ground. Never a drop of sunshine, or a breath of fresh air."

"Rumpelstiltskin, I can explain. I could have killed her, but I didn't I only—"

She gasped when he seized her arm with an unnatural speed and pressed something against her palm. A cry escaped her lips when it burnt her skin, and she looked in horror at what he had just done. "What is that?"

"This, dearie," he said for old time's sake, "Is the one thing no one can escape. Destiny. And I can promise," he said, jerking her back when she tried to pull her hand away, "that yours is going to be especially unpleasant."

He let her go then, and she backed into the cell. She looked at the imprint it had made on her hand. "No," she said brokenly.

"Yes, dearie. It's coming, and faster than you think. I'd be preparing myself if I were you."

**ooOoo**

An hour after Rumpelstiltskin left, Regina felt an acute pain coming from her palm. She looked at it, seeing it glow red and blacken. "No," she cried, feeling a fear that she'd never known before. Death was something to be afraid of. This. . . there were no words to describe the terror she felt at this moment.

When she heard a screeching outside, she knew her time was up.


End file.
